Little acts of art
Incorporating small creative moments into your life
When I was younger, I used to focus so much on the final product. Big and dramatic paintings. Multilayered animations. Finely detailed illustrations.
While I love making final products like my watercolored graphic novels, they take A LOT of time to create—I found I was delaying my gratification until the end of the project which can be years after I start. That wasn’t how I wanted to live my life.
So now, in addition to quick sketches and diary comics, I try to find joy in the everyday creative acts, things that others likely wouldn’t even consider art.
A wonderful example of this was on a recent trip to Swan’s Island, Maine, with my sister and her family. After a long day traveling by car and ferry, my niece and nephew were frantic with energy so we ended up on the Carrying Place Beach looking to burn off some steam.
The beach was covered with a variety of colored pebbles and rocks. I suggested that we try to make a rainbow with the rocks we found. Everyone joyfully got to work finding rocks of different colors and we made this together:
In a trip filled with sketching, artist galleries, and museums, the image of the rainbow of rocks on the beach remains the most poignant in my mind. Something so simple, collaborative, beautiful, and natural. A little act of art.
Here are some examples of other little acts of art I’ve done recently:
Picking flowers from my abundant dill plant and putting them in simple vase, saved from a fancy ginger beer (photo below)
An artfully arranged table for a dinner party
Pairing two bold patterns in my clothing.
Building rock cairns in my backyard.
None of these are life-changing, but they are joyful in a small and gentle way. And I think we could all do with more of that in our lives.
I’d love to hear how you incorporate little creative acts into your life. Let me know in the comments!
Free comics workshop
I’ll be leading a free virtual workshop on Friday, July 12 at 7 ET with S.A.W. (Sequential Artist Workshop). We’ll be making short comics about unusual experiences with wildlife. I love spending time in nature, and hearing about other people’s encounters with wildlife, so this should be a fun one!
All levels are welcome and the SAW community is really lovely and supportive. Hope to see you there! Register to get the link:
Something new is on the way…
Next week, I'll be launching something special that I'm really excited about. Keep an eye out!
Leif love
Leif perfectly captured how we felt after returning from our trip (us from Maine and Leif from the boarding place). It’s good to be home though!
Take care and keep creating!
-KWM
My trail running routes are are little acts of creativity, whether pre planned or on the fly. Same with my on the fly bike commute decisions. Figuring out how to make the journey as fun as possible.
Thanks for this. It gave me an idea.